Sisters
by abitterkitten
Summary: Maggie is crushed when Beth is not one of the survivors to make it to Terminus. One-shot. Implied Bethyl.


**A/N: This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction, so please go easy on me! Actually, I've never tried my hand at writing any sort of fiction. Although I love all of the development between Beth and Daryl in the last few episodes, I miss the Greene girls together. So this is my take on what would happen if everyone slowly trickled into Terminus from Maggie's point of view. I'm a sucker for a loving sisterly bond between two amazing women. Some implied feelings from Daryl and Beth, so if Bethyl doesn't suit your fancy, this may not be the story for you! :) Please review and let me know what you think! And thank you for taking the time to read this, I really hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: These characters and the Walking Dead universe are not my creation. I wish! I've always wanted to write a graphic novel and then have a hit television show with an incredibly attractive cast be based on it. A girl can dream.**

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"Maggie." Daryl's voice was strained and broken. She'd never heard him like that. He sounded panicked and shaken. Worried, she immediately turned her head to look at him, expecting him to be looking at her. But his gaze was elsewhere. She followed his eyes to the tree line and she saw it. Beautiful blond hair catching the sun light, making it glow. Tied up in a ponytail. She was far away. Too far to know for certain, but the way the figure was stepping out of the woods seemed familiar. Seemed distinctively like her sister.

It had been two weeks since Daryl had shown up to Terminus alone. Maggie had already been there for a little over two weeks along with Sasha and Bob. Glenn had shown up a few days after her along with Rick, Michonne, and Carl. Being reunited with him was the happiest she had ever felt. But her bliss was short lived when she soon realized that Beth was not with them.

While searching for Glenn, Maggie had naively assumed that he would be with everyone else. They would find each other and he would be with the rest of the prison group. But Beth was not with him. Her sweet sister, Beth, the one who always assured Maggie that everything would be ok. That Glenn would get better when he was sick. That their daddy would survive getting his leg cut off. She was her sister, her best friend, and she could not even entertain the idea that Beth hadn't survived. The world was cruel, but it couldn't be that cruel. She and Glenn would be together, looking for her.

But she wasn't. And while Maggie was ecstatic to have Glenn back, she couldn't help but feel her heart break a little more each day without her sister. Glenn had tried to make her feel better. "Daryl and Tyreese aren't here either, Maggie. She's with them, and besides here, that's the safest place that she could be." Maggie knew he was right, and that made the ache in her chest subside a bit.

But then Tyreese, Carol, and Judith showed up at Terminus. And while Maggie was thrilled to have them back, thrilled at the miracle that Judith was safe and back with her father and brother, she felt her heart break a little more to see the reunited family. It reminded her that she may never get that chance. She felt Glenn's eyes on her while everyone was hugging and crying tears of relief and joy. And after the initial excitement of seeing everyone had died down, he came over and hugged her tight. She buried her face in his neck and let the hot tears of disappointment fall. "Daryl's still not here. She's with him. And you know he'll keep her safe," Glenn comforted her.

She knew. She knew that Beth would be safe as long as she was with Daryl. So Maggie held on to hope for a few days more. Until Glenn came and found her while she was on watch. She knew by the look in his eyes that it was bad news. She felt the air leave her lungs and felt the tears start prickling behind her eyes. She forced herself to ask him, pushed the words out of her mouth, she had to know. Using all her will to make her voice even and calm she asked him. "Glenn? Is she here? What happened?" He looked down at the ground guiltily and back up into her eyes. He closed the distance between them and held her in a fierce embrace.

"Daryl's here. He says Beth was with him. But someone took her. He wants to talk to you." To her surprise, the tears did not come like she figured they would. She went numb at Glenn's words. It was like her body was going into shock and was shoving away whatever pain that should be bubbling up, like her body knew that if it let that pain in, she couldn't handle it.

"Where is he?" Her voice was eerily calm, the numbness taking over, and Glenn pulled back a bit to look at her. "He's outside of the kitchens. He said he'd wait for you there. Do you need me? I can go with you or I can stay here and take your watch?"

She gave Glenn a small smile of appreciation. She should have known from the minute the bus left her behind at the prison that she would never be so lucky to have both of them back with her. She should have known as soon as that sword came down on her daddy's neck. The world _was_ that cruel. Even when she thought she'd get a break, it snatched her hope away. She could have Glenn back, but never her baby sister. "Could you take my shift? I'll come find you after."

Glenn ran his hands down her arms, took her hands in his, and gave them a small squeeze. "Of course." He reached up with one of his hands and brushed a lock of hair away from her eyes and behind her ear. "I love you, Maggie."

"I love you too, Glenn." The words felt small. When was the last time she had gotten to say that to Beth?

Maggie made her way to the kitchens and immediately caught sight of Daryl sitting at one of the picnic tables outside. He was hard to miss. He looked like hell. His hair long and shaggy, his clothes covered in grime, and his skin streaked with dried blood. He was absentmindedly twisting the point of a knife into the wood of the table, looking off towards the woods, apparently lost in his thoughts.

She approached him slowly, scared of what she was going to hear. When she was a few feet away, he stopped twisting the knife and dropped his head, he knew that she was there. Maggie took a deep breath, forcing herself to be strong, crossed the final few feet slowly and reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Good to see you," she whispered.

"You too," he whispered back, his voice raspy. His head was still hanging, he hadn't even looked up at her. His shoulders sagged and Maggie took a seat next to him on the bench. He lifted his head just enough to look sideways at her and Maggie could see grief in his eyes. "Although I have to admit, I was hoping there'd be another Greene girl here coming to greet me."

Maggie let out a small sigh and she felt the tears begin to prick at the back of her eyes again. Her body defense mechanism was starting to lose the fight against the pain, and she felt it creep in on the numbness, "What happened to her, Daryl? She was with you?"

Daryl's gaze dropped down to the table again and he started back up with his knife twisting. He was upset. Visibly upset. She felt selfish, but she took comfort in the fact that someone else seemed to be as disappointed as her. "Yeah, she was. We ran from the prison together, just us. We were together a while, but someone took her."

"Who took her? How do you know someone took her?" Maggie couldn't understand. Yeah, this was the apocalypse, but people weren't running around just randomly taking other people from their groups, were they?

The knife had made a sizeable hole in the table and Daryl moved it over a few inches and started twisting at a new one. "We were staying at a house. Seemed safe enough. Everything was fine, quiet. And next thing I knew, there was a group of walkers coming through the front door." Daryl started twisting the knife harder, deeper into the wood. "I told her to run and I got the walkers away from her. When I got out to the road I saw her bag on the ground. Her shit was everywhere and then I heard it. A car driving away." He stabbed the knife into the table. Maggie could see his knuckles going white from the tightness of his grip. "Must've been a trap. Must've known we were in the house." He let go of the knife, his hand falling to the table, his head falling further. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

The pain Maggie felt started to threaten to overwhelm her. Her baby sister. Beautiful Beth who was everything this world needed, taken by God only knows who. Maggie felt sick to her stomach and she tried to stop her mind from jumping to conclusions. She looked over at Daryl. Seeing the pain etched in his face she realized he had jumped to the same conclusions. They must have been haunting him for weeks. She covered his hand with hers, "It's not your fault. I know Beth, and I know you, Daryl. I know you did everything you could."

His hand stiffened under hers and he gently pulled it away, letting out a small sigh. He seemed completely defeated. It was unnerving to see Daryl like this. Realizing he had let his guard slip, he quickly put his emotionless mask back on. "She really grows on you, huh?" His tone was overly casual, trying to pass off the question as just normal conversation.

Maggie reached over and squeezed his shoulder, letting out a small laugh. It felt good to be talking to someone who obviously cared deeply for Beth as well. "Yeah, she tends to do that. Gets under your skin before you realize it. She used to have boys lining up around the block to ask her out."

Daryl let out a small grunt, but didn't answer her. He just picked the knife out of the table and then continued to dig the knife into the wood. Making more and more holes in the wood. They sat like that for a while, comforted by the shared grief.

"You know, Maggie, she's still alive. I feel it in my bones. That girl's tougher than any one gives her credit for." Daryl's eyes blazed with fierce determination and his confidence in Beth's survival began edging out the pain threatening to consume her.

They sent out search parties for her every day. Scouring the woods around the funeral home where she'd been taken. They heard stories of cannibals and rapists from other survivors at Terminus, and every time, Maggie and Daryl would make eye contact. Sharing the same worried expression. Maggie started wondering if maybe she should be hoping Beth was dead. The world was too cruel for her. And each day that passed, Maggie's hope of finding her sister slipped further and further away.

But now all she could see was glowing blond hair and pale skin. Maggie felt like she had been punched in the gut. "Beth?" It came out like a whisper. Like a quiet prayer. And before she could even begin to process what she was seeing, the figure came into the clearing and dropped to its knees.

Maggie didn't realize she was running until she felt the cold wind whipping against her face. "Beth!" She could hear the desperation in her voice, sounding much like Daryl's had when he had called to her a minute ago. "Beth!" As she drew closer, she saw it. The small braid in the ponytail that Beth always had to wear. Her way of keeping a little bit of her old life close to her as the world fell apart around them. Maggie dropped to her knees in front of Beth and took her face in both of her hands.

As Maggie lifted Beth's face so she could look her in the eye, she could feel herself begin to smile. A huge grin breaking out on her face. And she saw it reflected in her sister's face as well. The next thing she knew, she was hugging Beth so hard she was almost scared she would break her. Beth was always so small, but she felt even skinnier than the last time she'd seen her. She felt her tears falling fast and could feel Beths' on her shoulder. Beth pulled her face away from Maggie's shoulder, meeting her eyes. Blue on blue. Sister connecting to sister. Beth's face was covered in dirt and blood and tears, but the laugh she let out reminded Maggie of how beautiful her sister was. "Oh my God, Maggie. I knew it. I knew I would find you," Beth's voice was strong. Fierce, full of laughter and love. And Maggie hugged her again. Crushing her to her body. She felt light, full of hope. They stayed like that for several minutes. Hugging, crying, laughing, words of love and hope, not asking any questions for fear the moment would be ruined.

Maggie felt her sisterly instinct cut in and loosened her grip. She let her eyes run all over Beth's body, looking for injuries, but only finding grime and dirt. "I love you, Bethy, but you're disgusting. Come on, we'll get you cleaned up."

Beth laughed, but not like before, she seemed distracted. But Maggie didn't care, her sister was back. She stood up, grabbed Beth's hand to help her up, and as she turned to start leading Beth back to the camp, she almost ran straight into Daryl. In the joy of finding her sister, she had forgotten she was out here on watch with Daryl. That he was the one that spotted her. He must have walked over while she was hugging Beth. But even as Maggie almost ran into him, he didn't make eye contact with her. His eyes were trained on Beth. Never leaving her face.

Beth gave Maggie's hand a small squeeze and without looking away from Daryl she asked softly, "Maggie, do you have water and food? Could you bring me some? I don't know if I can walk the rest of the way to your camp without it. I've been running for days."

Maggie noticed the way Beth and Daryl were looking at each other. Like they were alone in the world. She brought her sisters hand up to her lips and gave it a small kiss. "Sure, Bethy, whatever you need." Maggie turned to Daryl. "You keep her safe."

Without looking at her Daryl responded gruffly, "You know I will." Maggie turned to start walking back to the camp. After she had put some distance between herself and Daryl and Beth, she turned back around to get another look at her sister and make sure this was real. That this wasn't a dream.

She saw them facing towards each other, standing close together, like they were being pulled together by some unseen force. She saw Daryl run his hands down Beth's arms. Grabbing her hands in his. The way Glenn always did with her. And she saw him say something to Beth. Saw Beth shake her head slowly and then saw the smile that lit up Beth's face. Saw Daryl return her beaming smile with a small one of his own. Not a grimace or a sneer, but a genuine smile. One side of his mouth twisting up and making him look happier than she'd ever seen him.

She wasn't surprised when Beth hugged him. That's who Beth was. Spreading joy and hope. Wrapping her arms completely around him, pulling her body flush with his, turning her face so that her cheek rested on his chest, over his heart. But she was surprised when she saw how much it meant to Daryl. It was like she could see the tension melting from his body and after a few beats, he slowly wrapped his arms back around her. He dipped his head down and kissed the top of Beth's head softly, then turned his head so that his cheek was resting on the top of her head. His smile was back.

And Maggie thought maybe the world wasn't so cruel after all.

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**Again, thanks for reading if you made it this far! I really hope the Greene sisters do get to reunite! :)**


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